The parallels between Birdman and Black Swan were quickly apparent, as both films feature lead characters with theatrical ambitions who are haunted by bird or bird-like specters. An editor has now presented shots from the two films side by side, and if nothing else the BirdmanBlack Swan comparison provides a jumping-off point to discuss the relationship of each film to the other. Along with that, you can take in a long conversation with Birdman star Michael Keaton. Read More »

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If you ever want to feel bad about your paltry salary, looking into what you favorite A-listers make per film is a good way to do it. No doubt Kristen Stewart works hard on her Twilight movies — it can’t be easy saying some of those lines with a straight face — but can her $25 million payday for Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2 really be worth it?

Actually, yes. Forbes has compiled a list of the actors whose movies offer the highest returns for their hefty paychecks, and Stewart comes in at an impressive #2 on the list. The only person who makes a better investment is Natalie Portman, whose Black Swan ultimately grossed 25 times its $13 million budget. Read the full list after the jump.

Internships are a complicated thing. In certain industries, they’re a crucial way to gain experience and contacts before being eligible for paying jobs. On the other hand, interns are sometimes working just as hard, if not harder, than employees in order to get noticed and believe compensation should be given. Most internships do that in the form of college credit. Others, it’s just for a line on a resume. But with the cost of college increasing annually, it’s harder and harder for a college grad to accept a position that won’t immediately help pay off their loans.

In 2011, two interns who worked on Black Swan sued Fox Searchlight because they felt the internship program violated minimum wage and overtime laws. We wrote about it here. Now, the plaintiffs are looking to expand their case into a class action lawsuit again Fox Entertainment Global as a whole because the Fox Searchlight intern program has the same standards and practices as the one in place the bigger entity. There are more details and some healthy room for debate after the jump. Read More »

Because nothing works up the appetite quite like traveling back in time and fighting aliens, Baskin-Robbins is introducing a limited-edition line of Men in Black 3-inspired menu items. Also after the jump:

Chances are if you read this site, you spend a lot of your time thinking about movies that are on the horizon. Whether it be through reading, discussion or just general anticipation, movies that you haven’t seen are of the utmost importance. Then, once you see the movie in question, a few days pass, and it’s on to the next thing. The positive side to this mindset is you always have something to look forward to. The negative is you can sometimes forget about the great films you’re already done with.

For example, when Natalie Portman came out to award Best Actor at the Oscars last week, it took me a second to put two and two together. Of course, Portman deservidely won Best Actress the year before for her role in Darren Aronofsky‘s Black Swan. That made me think of Black Swan again, which I hadn’t done in several months and, wouldn’t you know it? Some really cool behind the scenes photographs from that film taken by Ray Lewis are now online. Do a little reminiscing and check them out below. Read More »

There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that unpaid internships can suck, but are they illegal? Former Black Swan interns Alex Footman and Eric Glatt think so. The two men are filing a federal lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures for violating labor laws by hiring unpaid interns to do the menial work typically associated with internships — fetching coffee, taking out trash — which they argue should have been done by paid employees instead. And while some have scoffed that that Footman and Glatt shouldn’t complain about “paying their dues” as many film industry vets have before them, the law may actually be on their side. Read more after the jump.

Reading this, you know you’re a film fan. You wouldn’t be on this site if you weren’t. Visiting movie themed websites is just one of many outlets film fans have to feed their passion. Going to the movies is another, writing about them fits too and then there are the select few who go above and beyond and make their own art based on their favorite films.

That’s what /Film reader Mahdi Chowdhury has done and his work is worthy of your time. He’s currently in the process of making some beautiful and thoughtful posters for some of his favorite films like Reservoir Dogs, Apocalypse Now, Leon, Lost in Translation, Taxi Driver and we’ve got a look after the jump. Read More »

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BLACK SWAN Darren Aronofsky doesn’t want you to experience joy or happiness. He wants to devastate you. He wants to punish you as he does his characters, fully immersing you in every dreary facet of their world as it collapses around them. And he is really, really good at it. Aronofsky has always shown a fascination with the degeneration of the body and mind, finding its limits when tested against paranoia, addiction, disease and giant planks of wood covered in nails and barbed wire. It’s amusing then, that his most horrifying exercise in body horror would be a wildly operatic melodrama about ballet. In Black Swan, you are not treated as an observer to Natalie Portman’s physical and psychological torment; you are made to experience it through her. There is never a moment of rest. The more Portman strives for perfection, the more she feels as though she could break at any moment — and Aronofsky makes damn sure you feel it too. His goal, I can only imagine, was to force the audience into a perpetual state of exhaustive madness. Well, mission accomplished.Available on Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: DVD – A “Metamorphosis: A Three-Part Series” feature. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as 3 additional features (“Behind the Curtain”, “Ten Years in the Making”, “Cast Profiles – Roles of a Lifetime”).